A paper sheet recognizing apparatus that collectively receives paper sheets (bills or the like) of different types (denominations or the like) in a hopper, feeds and carries the paper sheets into the apparatus one by one, recognizes the type (denomination in the case of notes), and counts and displays the number of sheets per type (amount per denomination) and the total number of sheets (total amount) has been heretofore known (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-178348).
This type of paper sheet recognizing apparatus includes an recognizing unit that detects an ink pattern or a magnetic pattern of the paper sheets, forms coded data based on light or magnetism detected by the recognizing unit, and checks the coded data by comparing the coded data with reference data prepared in advance, thereby recognizing the type and authenticity of the paper sheets (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-101472, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-357429, and Japanese Patent No. 3812858).
In the conventional paper sheet recognizing apparatus using such a recognizing method, for example, even at the time of recognizing Euro bills, which have different colors for each denomination and can be easily recognized by human eyes, the ink pattern or the magnetic pattern is detected to perform pattern recognition.
However, the pattern recognition takes a lot of time because it requires processing for forming coded data based on the detected light or magnetism. If a high-performance CPU or the like is provided in the recognizing unit of the paper sheet recognizing apparatus, the processing can be performed at high speed. However, this causes an increase in production cost of the paper sheet recognizing apparatus.
Further, for example, at the time of recognizing bills having noticeably different sizes for each type (for each denomination), the processing can be simplified by measuring their sizes. However, when recognizing paper sheets having different colors for each denomination such as Euro bills or dirty paper sheets only by using single color information, the sizes may not be detected accurately.
In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a paper sheet recognizing method and apparatus, which can increase processing speed at the time of recognizing paper sheets of different sizes and colors for each type, and can recognize types with high accuracy without increasing the cost.